Stargirl Reviews: Season 2, Episode 10

Summer School Part 10 – Director: Sheelin Choksey/Writer: Taylor Streitz

This one starts decades ago, not long after the JSA killed Bruce Gordon and trapped Eclipso in the diamond. Sylvester apologizes to Pat for bringing him along to what amounted to a murder scene. Sylvester mentions a watch his parents got him for his sixteenth birthday and how some punk at school stole it, but when he told his parents it turned out they hadn’t even remembered his birthday … the watch was from Pat. Sylvester says Pat is more family to him than his own parents and mentions that Eclipso threatened to kill him, along with the rest of the JSA’s families. Sylvester also apologizes for being such a prick most of the time and naturally Pat forgives him.

In the present, Courtney is pissed off that Pat and Barbara lied about the JSA killing Bruce Gordon, but the argument is interrupted when Shade crashes into the kitchen counter, still wounded from Eclipso’s attack. Shade tells them that fusing the diamond back together will trap Eclipso inside it again. Pat doesn’t trust him, but Barbara reminds him Shade saved her from Eclipso’s illusions. Shade suggests the Staff could fuse the diamond back together, but it’s still not strong enough so Pat comes up with another idea. Beth’s parents are a little freaked out because she’s wearing the Dr. Mid-Nite goggles all the time now and they’re even more bothered when she suddenly takes off to go see Courtney. Pat figures Jenny-Lynn Hayden’s Green Lantern ring can fuse the diamond and he has a pretty good idea where to find her, but he won’t tell Courtney (to keep her from taking off to find Jenny by herself). Mike is worried about being alone with Shade and about Eclipso attacking them again, but Courtney has called Beth over to protect them. No, seriously, she really did. On the road, Pat and Courtney discuss the JSA killing Bruce Gordon and Pat admits he didn’t stop them even though he disagreed with their decision. Courtney admits that she can’t look at Pat the same way anymore.

At the jail, Rick is feeling like crap when someone tosses a couple of apples into his cell through the window. He realizes it must be Solomon Grundy and that makes him feel a bit better. At home, Beth is feeling shitty about everything that’s been going on, but feels a bit better when Dr. McNider tells her he wasn’t involved in Bruce Gordon’s death. Mike sneaks out to go to the garage and work on the STRIPE armour. Pat finally tells Courtney where they’re going: Civic City. After reading about a couple of suspicious fires (green fires) at the Federal Building and an old orphanage, Pat figures Jenny must be in Civic City and thinks she’s probably hiding out at JSA headquarters. At home, Beth gets the goggles working and learns from McNider that Shade didn’t try to kill him during the JSA fight with the Injustice Society, he was actually trying to get Dr. Mid-Nite out of harm’s way. But something went wrong and Mid-Nite was pulled into the Shadow Realm. Mid-Nite tells Beth the Shade’s origin story: back in the 1800s, he was hired by a cabal to steal the black diamond so they could use the gem to summon Eclipso and use him against their enemies. They double-crossed Shade and tried to use him as a sacrifice, but he’d substituted a fake gem for the real one so the ritual failed … except it did open a channel to the Shadow Realm and fill Shade with that dark power.

Shade is kinda out of it and mistakes Barbara for his sister Emily, who he feels guilty for abandoning years ago. Beth gets McNider to open the files on Eclipso to look for a way to get him out of the Shadow Realm, but there are a lot of files. At JSA headquarters, Courtney is impressed by Pat and Sylvester’s old workspace, but she’s even more excited to find that Jenny has been staying there. They find a bunch of papers about a place called the Helix Institute and figure out that Jenny’s brother (Todd Rice) has been staying there. Back in Blue Valley, Mike is working on STRIPE when he hears a news report about pink lightning in the sky. At the Helix Institute, Courtney and Pat learn that Todd is no longer there, but Jenny is. She tells them she caused the fires by accident when she couldn’t find her brother, since her powers respond to negative emotions. Courtney calms her down and tells her why they need her help. After they leave the Institute, we see the head nurse making a suspicious phone call about Jenny looking for Todd.

In Blue Valley, Mike heads over to Jakeem’s house and finds giant pieces of candy everywhere and the house turned into gingerbread. At home, Beth finally figures out the true connection between Shade and the black diamond, but it’s too late to warn anyone. At JSA headquarters, Jenny’s power fuses the diamond back together and that immediately heals Shade’s wounds back in Blue Valley. He admits he tricked them into reassembling the diamond so he could heal, even though he knew that Eclipso wouldn’t be imprisoned again, but would be summoned to wherever the diamond is. Eclipso appears in JSA headquarters and blasts Jenny, then opens a portal to the Shadow Realm that pulls Courtney in. Pat tries to save her, but she’s sucked into the void just like Cindy was.

This is a pretty good episode, giving us the Shade’s origin and bringing Jenny back. Shade lying about Eclipso in order to heal fits his character, although I think his letting whoever fixed the gem get attacked by Eclipso takes him out of the realm of misunderstood rogue and right into evil asshole territory. I’m assuming his delirium when he mistook Barbara for his sister was genuine and he does seem sorry to have disappointed Barbara, but that doesn’t do Courtney much good. I assume Courtney was pulled into the same place as Cindy, so maybe the two of them can cooperate to escape. (And if it’s the same Shadow Realm where McNider is trapped, maybe all three of them can get back together.) It was nice to see Sylvester being something other than a dick to Pat and Grundy tossing Rick apples in jail was a nice touch too.

Noticeable Things:

• Jenny was looking for Todd at the Helix Institute and in the Infinity Inc. comics Helix was a bunch of genetically-modified criminals headed by Mr. Bones. We see Nurse Love calling someone named Mr. Bones after Pat and the others leave, and in the comics a Dr. Love was the one who created Helix in the first place, so I assume this is setting up some future storylines.
• Sylvester mentions a bully he and Pat went to school with named Hop Harrigan. In the comics, Hop Harrigan was a Golden Age character who was a pilot and (as far as I know) was a pretty nice guy.
• In JSA headquarters, we see some newspaper clippings framed on the wall about various exploits of the JSA and Seven Soldiers of Victory, including a couple that mention the Spider, suggesting he started out as a good guy and turned bad later just like in the comics.

Favourite Quotes:

• “I’ll admit … it’s not my best entrance.” Shade after crashing into Pat and Barbara’s kitchen.
• “Thought robots would be a lot more like Legos … I guess not.” Mike having trouble getting the STRIPE armour back in working order.